Integrated circuit cards or smart cards, i.e. cards embodying an integrated circuit (chip) for the processing required by its specific use, are a widely diffuse means for storing information and performing transactions of different nature.
In telecommunication field, smart cards are used for instance in the so-called SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) of mobile terminals, or in the SIM evolution, named USIM (Universal SIM), for the 3rd generation terminals. For sake of simplicity, the term “SIM” will be used throughout the specification to indicate both the SIM and the USIM. The integrated circuit inside a SIM card is substantially a micro-controller, with memory areas for programs and data (in particular information characterising a user), and a processing unit entrusted with the execution of a number of security-related functions (such as user authentication and communication encryption).
There is an ever growing interest of telecommunication operators and industry in offering the customers of mobile networks the possibility of using their terminals for a variety of applications and in a variety of environments, besides the conventional communication functions. Some of such applications entail associating the SIM card of the terminal with transceivers allowing use of the terminal for radio communications which do not pass through the mobile network, for instance for financial transactions, electronic tag writing/reading and so on. Examples of SIM cards used both for mobile communications and for other wireless transactions are disclosed in EP 0 820 178 A and WO 01/80193 A.
The association of the SIM card of a user terminal with a transceiver for Personal Area Network (PAN) applications may be of particular interest. Such transceivers are devices that can be strongly miniaturised and that offer the possibility of enabling new value added services, and therefore they are suitable for cooperation with a SIM card. Examples of transceivers of this kind are those using the Bluetooth™ technology, whose characteristics are disclosed in IEEE Standard 802.15.1. Those transceivers allow create short range, dynamically varying networks, each capable of communicating with an adjacent network of the same kind to provide a wider coverage.
An example of this association is disclosed in WO-01/95605. The document disclose a system including a SIM module with a conventional GSM SIM card connected to a Bluetooth™ slave unit, and a GSM terminal including a Bluetooth™ master unit. Communication of the SIM with the terminal takes place through the Bluetooth™ units.
Another technology for implementing PANs is the ZigBee™ technology, whose features are disclosed in the homonymous standards. The physical and MAC (Medium Access Control) level of a ZigBee™ protocol is disclosed also in IEEE Standard 802.15.4.
Whatever the kind of transceiver to be associated with a SIM card to obtain a multi-function SIM card providing the user terminal with new capabilities, the prior art solutions propose an at least partial integration of the new functions and the conventional SIM functions on a same ad hoc chip, in order to reduce the costs of the multi-function SIM card (see for instance the aforementioned EP 0 820 178 A and WO 01/80193 A). However, as long as the new multi-function terminals have not attained such a wide diffusion that the development costs of the new chips are justified, it would be more convenient to maintain the existing SIM chips and transceiver chips also in the multi-function SIM cards.
The prior art has failed to address this problem and it does not provide any teaching on how the terminal, the conventional SIM chip and a transceiver added to the SIM card can be made to communicate in order to integrate the new and old functions in the mobile equipment.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a joint SIM card and wireless transceiver module for a user terminal of a telecommunication system, in which the same chips as would conventionally be used for non-joint SIM cards and transceivers can still be used.